A Eurogamer.net report attributes the relative absence of mass layoffs at Japanese game studios to two structural factors: smaller average team sizes and a sharply lower ceiling on executive compensation than Western publishers. The article explicitly contrasts the latter against $30 million executive pay packages.

The analysis, attributed to one unnamed industry expert, frames the divergence between Japanese and Western studio labor outcomes as a product of how publishers are organized at the top.

What does the $30 million figure actually measure?

The claim that Japanese studios do not pay executives $30 million salaries functions as shorthand for the executive pay gap separating Japanese publishers from major Western public companies.

Western publishers disclose CEO and chair-level compensation through regulatory filings, with packages at the largest companies routinely clearing $20 million in annual total compensation before the current market downturn. Japanese publishers operate under different disclosure regimes and corporate traditions that produce a compressed executive pay range.

That gap matters for restructuring decisions. Compensation structures built around multi-million-dollar executive packages, equity awards and aggressive M&A financing leave headcount as the variable expense most exposed when revenue contracts. Smaller executive cost bases give publishers more room to absorb revenue shocks without cutting staff at scale.

Why does team size matter for layoffs?

The second half of the argument addresses organizational scale. Western AAA production has trended toward projects with internal teams in the hundreds or thousands, supplemented by large outsourcing networks. That scale produces more ambitious projects but also a larger fixed-cost base per title.

Japanese studios producing comparable franchises typically anchor work in smaller core teams, supported by long-standing subcontractor relationships but with materially fewer direct employees. Smaller headcount reduces both the absolute number of roles exposed to cuts and the political cost of executing reductions.

The arithmetic is straightforward: a 10% reduction at a small studio produces a small number of departures; the same percentage at a multi-thousand-person publisher produces orders of magnitude more.

What does this mean for studio operators?

For Western studio leaders, the Eurogamer analysis surfaces a structural question. Publishers that prioritized large executive packages, M&A-driven consolidation and rapid headcount expansion built cost bases more exposed to revenue shocks than publishers operating with leaner executive pay and smaller core teams.

The argument is not that Japanese studios have avoided layoffs entirely. Headcount adjustments at Japanese publishers over the past two years have shown up in restructuring announcements, project cancellations and subsidiary consolidation, but not at the multi-thousand-person scale seen among Western peers.

Whether that pattern reverses depends on compensation disclosures, executive turnover and the pace of M&A activity through 2025 and 2026. Watch upcoming proxy filings from major public Western publishers in mid-2025 for executive compensation data, and watch the cadence of acquisition and divestiture announcements as the clearest signals on whether the structural pressures flagged in the Eurogamer analysis are likely to repeat.